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It's illegal to cash a check made out to a dead person! The check should be returned. Subsidies are not inherited, they have to be applied for.

The audit in 2009 showed 1.1 billion in payments to the dead!

Correct, it's illegal to cash a check made out to a dead person. I'd certainly advocate that any relative of a farmer who did cash a check made out to the deceased, be prosecuted.

That being said, I included that because I honestly do not know how farm subsidy payments are handled. I'm not sure if they're made out to the farm or the farmer. If made out to the former, it very well could be more of a paperwork issue with the intended effect of the payment still being realized. If of the latter, of course it's fraud which should be prosecuted.

I was astonished as well with the previous audit figure! Considering they went from $1.1 BILLION to the deceased from 1999-2005, to a mere $32.6M from 2008-2012 shows a bloody remarkable improvement in quality controls. It's entirely possible they've reached the point of diminishing returns, from the expenses of increased scrutiny. Not that they should back down, or not-prosecute those whom fraudulently cashed those checks.